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In 18-month period 4,363 men in Great Britain were in crashes that injured or killed pedestrians compared with 1,473 womenMale drivers are almost three times more likely than women to be involved in road collisions that kill or seriously injure pedestrians in Great Britain, a gap that has widened over the past decade.A Guardian analysis of government road accident and journey data shows that in 2020 and the first half of 2021, 4,363 male drivers were involved in collisions that seriously injured or killed pedestrians, compared with 1,473 female drivers. Continue reading...

Crackdown follows a rise in disorder and pitch invasions at football matchesMore than 1,300 “violent and abusive” football fans in England and Wales will be banned from travelling to the World Cup in Qatar next month following a season disfigured by a dramatic surge in disorder at matches.Measures will come into force this Friday requiring 1,308 people with a history of football-related violence or disorder to surrender their passports, preventing them travelling to the Gulf state or neighbouring countries from where they could commute to games. Continue reading...

Government launches ‘every mind matters’ mental health campaign to help sufferers deal with stress and sleeplessnessThe “Sunday Scaries” regularly affect more than two-thirds of Britons who report work stresses, lack of sleep and looming to-do lists as the primary causes of anxiety before the start of the working week.The worst affected were young adults with 74% of those aged 18-24 experiencing what psychologists call “heightened anticipatory anxiety” as the weekend comes to a close. Continue reading...

The body gave an award for unionising workers to the IWGB, which it now refuses to recogniseIt was once home to some of the world’s most celebrated radicals and changemakers including Karl Marx, Charles Dickens and Nelson Mandela, but now the Royal Society of Arts has become the centre of a bitter battle over trade union recognition.Nearly half the workforce below senior manager level at the 270-year-old charity’s headquarters in central London have joined the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, with most staff, in and outside the IWGB, backing unionisation. But the RSA’s executive team led by new chief executive Andy Haldane, a former chief economist at the Bank of England and government levelling-up adviser, has refused three times to voluntarily recognise the union, which would give the workers’ elected representatives the ability to negotiate pay and conditions. Continue reading...

Unnecessary policies and overpayments for services are draining the accounts of vulnerable customersElderly and vulnerable customers are being routinely overcharged by utility and insurance firms in a hidden scandal highlighted today by one of the country’s senior financial services executives. Unfair practices are putting them at risk of being unable to afford food and heating, he warns.Michael Donald, a former director of Visa UK, said he was staggered to discover hundreds of pounds of overcharging when he carefully checked the direct debits on his 79-year-old mother’s accounts. Continue reading...

Headteachers fear impact on children of unfilled vacancies as support staff say rising bills force them to leave jobs in educationHeadteachers across the country say they cannot fill vital teaching assistant vacancies and that support staff are taking second jobs in supermarkets to survive because their wages are “just a joke”.Schools are reporting that increasing numbers of teaching assistants are leaving because they will not be able to pay for high energy bills and afford food this winter. And with job ads often attracting no applications at all, heads fear they will be impossible to replace. They warn this will have a serious impact on children in the classroom, especially those with special educational needs, and will make it increasingly hard for teachers to focus on teaching. Continue reading...

Search through debris called off after blast at Applegreen service station outside village of CreesloughIreland is in mourning after the death toll from the explosion at a petrol station in County Donegal rose to 10, including a young child and two teenagers.Emergency services called off a search on Saturday evening after sifting through rubble all day, and did not expect to find more survivors or bodies. Continue reading...

Two people were arrested and later released without charge over the protest at the National Gallery of VictoriaTwo Extinction Rebellion activists glued themselves to a prized Pablo Picasso painting at the National Gallery of Victoria to draw attention to environmental causes ahead of the state election next month.The protesters – who were arrested and later released without charges being laid – used superglue on Sunday to attach themselves to Picasso’s Massacre in Korea, which was on loan to the gallery as part of its Picasso Century exhibition. The NGV said in a statement the artwork, which was protected by a perspex glazing, was not harmed.Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...

Liberal Democrats write to cabinet secretary to demand examination of meeting with financiers after chancellor’s mini-budgetThe head of the civil service is facing calls to order an investigation into whether Kwasi Kwarteng breached the ministerial code when he attended a champagne reception with hedge fund managers after his mini-budget.The chancellor has conceded that “with hindsight it probably wasn’t the best day to go” to the gathering following his statement, which included scrapping the bankers’ bonus cap and the abolition of the 45p top rate of tax. He was later forced to U-turn on his 45p plan. Continue reading...

Businessman Robert Tsao bankrolls a people’s militia on the island – inspired by the example of Ukraine – to defend against invasionOn a sleepy Sunday morning 50 anonymous young men and women have wandered into a nondescript Taipei office for training with Kuma Academy. The one-day course includes cross-strait geopolitics and strategy, invasion scenarios, and disinformation. Later, they’re taught the difference between the opposing armies’ uniforms, and how to tie a tourniquet.The citizen warriors are being trained with a 1bn Taiwan dollar (£28m) donation from businessman Robert Tsao. He made global headlines last month when he pledged the money to train “three million people in three years” and 300,000 sharpshooters for a civilian militia. The “warrior” training would be in conjunction with the academy, a volunteer civilian training organisation that launched in 2021. Continue reading...

Local health chief says match had been deemed ‘harmless’ because away fans had been banned to prevent violenceOnly four paramedics were on standby inside the football stadium in Indonesia where 131 people were killed in a crowd crush, with a further 12 nearby, the head of the local public health office has said, promising a thorough evaluation of the response.The match was not considered to be a high-risk event because only fans of Arema, the home side, were present, said Wiyanto Wijoyo, the head of Malang regency public health office. Supporters of the opposing team, Persebaya Surabaya, who won the match, had been banned as a precaution to prevent violence between rival fans. Continue reading...

Economists say the tax cuts are unaffordable and should be trimmed or changed, either now or in May

Linking with pay rather than inflation would leave households worse off – but ministers must get measure past their own MPsLow-income households will be almost £400 a year worse off under No 10’s plans to increase benefits at a lower rate than inflation, new analysis for the Observer has revealed.Liz Truss and her government are considering uprating welfare in line with earnings rather than inflation. It would mean increasing them by 5.5% rather than about 10%, according to the most recent official data, saving about £5bn. Continue reading...

Disgraced producer, already poised to spend life in prison, faces 11 additional sexual assault chargesFive years after the bombshell reports that ended his career, the disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein will go on trial in Los Angeles on Monday over a series of alleged sexual assaults involving five different women.It’s the second trial of the former Hollywood titan, who has been incarcerated since February 2020 when he was convicted of sexual assault and rape in proceedings in New York. Continue reading...

Experts to assess extent of damage as limited traffic appears to resume on key bridge and Vladimir Putin orders extra security for infrastructure

Nicaraguan soldiers assist evacuations as up to 38cm of rain forecast across Central America after tropical storm strengthened into hurricaneHurricane Julia swept by just south of Colombia’s San Andres island on Saturday evening soon after strengthening from a tropical storm, as Nicaraguans rushed to prepare for the storm’s arrival on their coast overnight.After gaining power throughout the day, Julia’s maximum sustained winds had increased to 120km/h (75mph) by Saturday evening, the US National Hurricane Center said. Continue reading...

The party said it would save a typical family $3,500 a year, and cost nearly $1.3bn over four years

Gig, disability and home care workers would also gain access to a portable entitlement scheme

Tokyo says North Korea’s seventh round of weapons tests in two weeks may have been launched from submarineNorth Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters, the latest of its recent barrage of weapons tests, a day after Pyongyang warned the redeployment of a US aircraft carrier near the Korean peninsula was inflaming regional tensions.South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement that it detected two missile launches between 1.48am and 1.58am on Sunday local time from the North’s eastern coastal city of Munchon. It added that South Korea’s military has boosted its surveillance posture and maintains a readiness in close coordination with the US. Continue reading...

Ian Blackford says Tory mini-budget will go down as one of worst financial interventions in modern historyLiz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget “will go down as one of the worst financial interventions in modern history”, the Scottish National party’s Westminster leader has said.Speaking on the first day of the party’s conference in Aberdeen, Ian Blackford took aim at the pair over the economic consequences of their “fiscal event”. “Only a matter of weeks into their new roles, the disastrous duo of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have crashed the economy, sent the pound plummeting, put pension funds at risk and caused mayhem for mortgage holders,” Blackford said. Continue reading...

Tory minister, who denies any wrongdoing, reported for incident in hotel bar during party’s conferenceThe trade minister Conor Burns was sacked from the government and suspended as a Conservative MP after he was seen touching a young man’s thigh in a Tory conference hotel bar, it has been claimed.According to the BBC on Saturday, an eyewitness said the former minister was seen with the man in the early hours of Tuesday in the Hyatt Regency hotel bar in Birmingham, which was a popular venue for conference attenders. Burns has denied any wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Public opinion for repealing the package jumped 7% from the previous month as people become better informed about the consequences

Valeriy Tarasenko was left with ‘significant injuries’ but expected to survive, according to Quebec policeAn associate of the Ukrainian woman who posed as a member of the Rothschild banking family at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club was reportedly shot outside a lakeside resort north-west of Montreal, Canadian newspaper LaPresse has reported.The shooting left Valeriy Tarasenko, 44, with “significant injuries”, but he was expected to survive, said the Sûreté du Québec, the Quebec provincial police. The police said it had launched a search for the shooter and any accomplices behind the attack. Continue reading...

Tehran authorities ‘shaken to core’ as demonstrations grow and death toll mountsThe mother of a 16-year-old Iranian girl, Nika Shakarami, who died during protests that continue to sweep the country, has rejected official claims that her death was caused by falling from a building and insisted she was beaten to death by regime forces.Nasreen Shakarami said authorities refused to notify the family about her daughter’s death for 10 days and then removed Nika from the morgue, burying her in a remote village without the family’s consent. Her mother says records of Nika’s death show her skull was severely damaged and her injuries were consistent with being struck repeatedly on her head. Continue reading...

Ukrainians relish show of Russian vulnerability after explosion on supposedly untouchable 18-mile prestige structureAn explosion has crippled the heavily guarded bridge connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland, a hated symbol of Russian occupation and key logistics link for Russian troops in southern Ukraine, in the latest heavy blow to Vladimir Putin after weeks of military humiliation.The Kerch bridge was a personal prestige project for the Russian president, and the hit came the day after his 70th birthday. The blast destroyed the road into Crimea and left the railway link in flames. Continue reading...

PM’s -47 net rating in Opinium poll worse than Boris Johnson’s at height of Partygate scandalLiz Truss’s personal ratings are now even worse than those recorded for Boris Johnson at the height of the Partygate scandal, according to another Observer poll which will cause alarm among Tory MPs.Truss’s personal approval rating of -47 is now the worst ever recorded for a prime minister in an Opinium poll for the Observer. It is a worse rating than that recorded for Johnson during Partygate and Theresa May in the weeks before her resignation. Continue reading...

The bravery of the women’s rights fight in Tehran and beyond is a cause for hope – and a call to actionIt was in the strange days between the Queen’s death and her funeral that the bad news from Iran broke through the blanket coverage of the state mourning rituals. The news that pierced this was the report that a young woman had died in the custody of Iran’s morality police.Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, had been taken into custody because of “bad hijab”. She was visiting relatives in Tehran with her brother when the morality police challenged her about a few strands of hair that were showing from her standard hijab. According to her brother, she was in custody for just two hours before collapsing and being taken to hospital, where she lay in a coma before dying on 16 September. The authorities claimed that she had a heart attack from a pre-existing condition. Her family deny this, and state that her head and body were covered in bruises and signs of being beaten. Continue reading...

US imposed ban on British meat during BSE epidemic but restriction was lifted earlier this yearBritish lamb has been exported to the US for the first time in more than 20 years after a ban put in place during the BSE epidemic was lifted.US president Joe Biden committed to scrapping the ban on imports of British meat in September 2021. Continue reading...

Former Spice Girl, who attended Tory conference, makes apparent online criticism of Conor BurnsMel B has made an apparent criticism of sacked Tory minister Conor Burns’s behaviour during a conversation with her at the Conservative party conference.Burns was asked to step down from his role as a minister of state in the trade department and had the Conservative whip withdrawn pending an investigation into an allegation of “serious misconduct” on Friday, Downing Street said. He later denied having ever met the former Spice Girl singer. Continue reading...

Online content was blamed for the 14-year-old’s death yet harmful posts remain live on site, including suicide-related contentInstagram is breaking its promise to remove posts that glorify self-harm and suicide years after the death of the schoolgirl Molly Russell, Observer analysis has found.The photo-sharing app has long claimed it does not allow material that “promotes or glorifies self-harm or suicide” and says it removes content of this kind. Continue reading...

Radical ideas to reduce spending, outlined in Matthew Sinclair’s 2010 handbook, may now be needed by the Tories to pay for their tax cutsLiz Truss’s top economic adviser suggested freezing the state pension, halving the government’s publicity budget and slashing “non-frontline” staff in health and schools by 10%, as part of a manifesto designed to win an election while also cutting spending.Matthew Sinclair, the former chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, edited a book by the small-state pressure group that called for a series of radical cuts, including the scrapping of the Prevent programme designed to tackle extremism. Continue reading...

Sergei Surovikin appointed on same day as explosion on Kerch bridge that has dealt blow to Vladimir Putin

The 85-year-old British artist plays with traditional still life in his latest exhibition – and stars in its enigmatic centrepiece“Fresh pictures of a very beautiful world” is how the artist David Hockney describes his latest works, a series of digital drawings of flowers that culminated in an extraordinary, 5-metre-long picture of the artist in front of these still-life images, revealed for the first time in the Observer today.Hockney is teasing the eye and playing with perspective and the passing of time in his newest creation. In a vast photographic drawing, entitled 25th June 2022, Looking at the Flowers (Framed), he has created an enigmatic, striking picture in which the onlooker sees the artist as onlooker, observing his own works. Continue reading...

Prisoner in his mid-70s had been sentenced for the murders of Angelika Kluk, Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicolSerial killer Peter Tobin has died after becoming unwell while serving three life sentences.He was taken from HMP Edinburgh to hospital, thought to be the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, on Wednesday and subsequently died, sources said. Continue reading...

Archbishop of Canterbury joins others worried about impact Tel Aviv switch could have on Palestinian peace talksThe archbishop of Canterbury has expressed concern about the potential for the British embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.The UK prime minister, Liz Truss, told her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid at the United Nations summit in New York last month that she was considering the relocation. Continue reading...

Police called on Friday night to reports of man in ‘distress’ and used incapacitant spray, watchdog understandsA man who had earlier appeared to be in “distress” died after allegedly being restrained by police officers, sparking an investigation by the police watchdog.The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has launched an investigation into the death of the man, whose identity has not yet been confirmed, in Hertfordshire in the early hours of Saturday morning. Continue reading...

Ceremonies under way in Uthai Sawan after king says ‘there are no words that can describe the sorrow’Toy trucks, baby bottles and flowers have been left beside the coffins of victims of the mass killing at a nursery school in north-eastern Thailand, as funeral ceremonies began.Inside wat Rat Samakee, a temple in Uthai Sawan where most of the child victims were taken, families sat beside their loved ones’ remains. A mother held on to her son’s red blanket as she stared ahead. Another woman hugged her loved one’s photo tightly. Continue reading...

Gordonstoun paid the sums out of court and has not admitted any liability for the alleged attacksThe King’s former school, Gordonstoun, has reached out-of-court settlements totalling more than £500,000 with two ex-pupils who alleged rape, bullying and severe sexual abuse at its junior school in the 1990s.The stories of Kate (not her real name) and John Findlay were first told in the Observer Magazine in 2015. Kate, who was a scholarship student, alleged she was raped when 13 years old by a gap-year teacher on a school camping trip, while John was drugged, sexually assaulted and photographed in his dormitory bed at Aberlour House, Gordonstoun’s junior school, by a different teacher. Continue reading...

Party members, who have strong views on issues such as free speech, are trying to reshape Conservative ideology in their own imageIt was near the end of a fringe event entitled Are We Losing the War on Woke? when Tory MP Miriam Cates suggested drastic cuts to higher education. Why? In part to save money. But also, she said, to stop young people being “indoctrinated” with liberal ideas.One overlooked feature of the just-ended Conservative conference was a battle waged away from the cabinet splits and the main conference hall – a concerted, if so far largely below the surface, effort to get the party fully engaged in a US-style culture war. Continue reading...

Section of Kerch bridge collapses after blast, seen as major blow to Russian military prestige

The uprising over the death of Masha Amini is like no other, but whether it leads to revolution remains to be seenThe Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, was holding court to a small group of journalists at the Millennium Hilton in New York on his first visit to the United States since his election in June 2021. At home, protests over the death in police custody of Masha Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, were entering their sixth day.At the start of the meeting, a 10-minute film was shown, part patriotic travel brochure and part paen to how the Iranian people “live peacefully together in a new model of democracy”. Given the events in Iran, it seemed like the kind of absurd propaganda only a severely self-deluded regime would screen. Continue reading...

Decision by Junts to pull out leaves government in minority hands of Catalan Republican LeftTensions between Catalonia’s two main pro-independence parties boiled over on Friday night when the hardline Junts party abandoned the regional coalition government, leaving the region in the minority hands of the more moderate Catalan Republican Left (ERC).The two parties, who formed a coalition after the regional election in February 2021, have profound and longstanding disagreements over the best way to achieve their shared aim of Catalan independence. The ERC wants a negotiated political solution, while Junts favours a more confrontational and unilateral approach to seceding from Spain. Continue reading...

Only one in five trains are running as more than 40,000 RMT union members begin 24-hour strikePassengers have been warned to only travel by rail if absolutely necessary on Saturday, when a national strike means only one in five of normal scheduled services are due to run.More than 40,000 members of the RMT union, including most Network Rail signallers and train crew and staff at 15 operating companies, are striking for 24 hours in the long-running dispute over pay and working conditions. Hundreds of TSSA members at three train operators are also on strike, while others will refuse to act as contingency staff. Continue reading...

Vladimir Putin opened road section in 2018 and Moscow had threatened reprisals if it was attacked

Trough tracking over NSW towards the coast is bringing intense rainfall and the risk of flash flooding, Bureau of Meteorology says. This blog is now closed

Blasts rock bridge linking Crimea to Russia; Zelenskiy warns on nuclear weapons; Moscow declares Russian rapper a ‘foreign agent’

Many landlords ignored violations of the terms of the lease during the pandemic – but that may now changeSome people who work from home or run a business from their flat or house could face legal action for violating the terms of their property’s lease, according to a legal academic.During the pandemic the number of people working from home ballooned, and many have continued to operate from their flats and houses after the Covid restrictions were lifted. Continue reading...

Seven-storey Knightsbridge property overlooking Hyde Park has more living space than American football pitchThe UK’s most expensive house – a 45-room “private palace” overlooking Hyde Park – is up for sale nearly three years after it was sold to a Chinese billionaire for more than £200m.The Guardian understands that at least five prospective buyers toured the seven-storey Knightsbridge property since it was quietly put on the market in the last few weeks. Continue reading...

Four defence force helicopters on standby as low-pressure system, forecast to persist until Sunday, brings flash flooding, landslides and damaging winds

The PM’s in tray looks ever more challenging with warnings of winter blackouts, NHS winter crisis and nuclear threat from RussiaLiz Truss is hoping her conference speech on “growth, growth, growth” will have set a new agenda for her party, drawing a line under the disastrous week of her U-turn over the 45p tax rate and 10 days of market turmoil after the mini-budget.However, she is facing a perilous few weeks and months ahead, with multiple potential crises on the horizon and warnings of a winter of discontent. Here are some of the most difficult and intractable problems. Continue reading...